Unix Tip: PERFORMANCE OF CROND TASKS

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Unix Tip 3177 - October 18, 2009

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PERFORMANCE OF CROND TASKS

A good tip for getting better performance in crond tasks is choosing a better time for launching them.

If the process that we want to launch needs few time, but can overload the system easily, you can launch the task in hours that the work is busy and -and HERE is the tip- in strange minutes. That's why lots of people launch their crons at midnight, but nobody uses to do it at 00:13, in example.

That tip can obtain his best in hourly-launched tasks. If that kind of tasks are launched all at the same time, the system will overload without any use. You can delay that kind of tasks (one at 13th minute, other at 17th minute,other at 27th minute...) and obtain better performance without work. That will avoid overloading caused by launching several tasks at the same time.

The best is that administration tasks do not overlap, but this is not always possible. If you can do it, it's better you do it.

Using nice is also a good idea.

But the best is making a log of the uptime during a week. You can be surprise, because all the staff of a department of a firm use to do the coffee-break at the same time; it's the perfect time for making some administrative tasks. :-)

But do not clear the forbidden extensions -the famous find /home -name core -exec \{\} \; and other stuff like tmps, ~s and so on- of the system at work time, or you will have a queue of staff people very, very angry knocking at your door.

This tip generously supported by: irbis@activanet.es

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